TV2 Norway’s Christopher Haug: “We want the writers to stay at the heart of the production”

Leading the list are Rubicon’s dramedy Samurai Security, Monster Scripted’s Meglerne (The Real Estate Agents), Miso Film’s Acquitted and Yellow Bird’s Occupied.

The 10x46’ series Third Eye produced by Rubicon TV is actually based on your original idea. What’s the story and what’s the twist with this new Scandi crime series?
Christopher Haug: Basically it’s a high concept crime series with supernatural elements. It’s the story of Viggo, a crime investigator whose daughter was kidnapped five years earlier and disappeared. Everybody has moved on except him. He is asked to pull his life together and concentrate on his job, when he starts having nightmares, about his daughter and the cases he is investigating. Although he doesn’t believe in clairvoyance, he soon realises that his dreams can help him solve his cases so he reluctantly starts to use them. He becomes his own antagonist. 

Does each episode come with an ending?
CH: The first seven episodes have a case ending, but in the last three we follow the search for what happened to his daughter.

Would you say that The Third Eye is the first step in TV2’s new drama offensive?
CH: Yes. I’ve worked three years to find the right projects and The Third Eye is the first of several major dramas that will premiere this year. Our ambition at TV2 is to become a major –even the best-supplier of contemporary TV drama in Norway. We want to challenge NRK and bring more high quality commercially-oriented TV drama to Norwegian viewers.

What is the structure and strategy for your Drama department and what slots are available for you on TV2?
CH: For the time being I’m the only person working full time, but we’re planning to develop our Drama unit. Our goal is to produce one or two long running dramas a year, one in the spring and one in the fall for our 20hr00 slot. We also want to have two 30 minute humour/dramedies for our 21hr40 slot. We evaluate both the slots and days that are best suited for different shows. I think it gives us more creative freedom in terms of story that can be told. Then we also have our soap Hotel Caesar four times a week.

Are crime and dramedies your main genres?
CH: As Hitchcock used to say, to have a great film -or in our case great TV drama- you need three things: a script, a script, a script!! The most important for us is therefore to have the best writers who can tell great character-driven dramas. We want the writers to stay at the heart of the production and want to live and die for the story they want to tell. It has to be their story, not the Head of Drama’s story.

What is your commissioning budget?
CH: It’s confidential but it’s no secret is that we’re willing to invest more than ever in TV drama. It’s key for us and this is just the beginning.

What other TV dramas do you have lined up?
CH: The next one is Samurai Security (12X30’), a mockumentary about dysfunctional mall cops produced as well by Rubicon TV. The series premieres on February 27. Then in the autumn we will have Meglerne (The Real Estate Agents), a remake of the Swedish 30 minute series Mäklarna produced by Monster Scripted

Then we have the 10 episode high profile dramas Occupied produced by Yellow Bird and Acquitted produced by Miso Film, both scheduled to start this spring. Acquitted is a character-driven drama about a guy arrested for murdering his girlfriend. He is acquitted but the community believes he is guilty. He moves away and comes back after 20 years to saves the town’s main plant. He has to fight for reconciliation. Siv Rajendram Eliassen and Anna Bache-Wiig have written the script and Geir Henning Hopland (Lilyhammer) is concept director. The series is scheduled to premiere in 2015.As for Occupied it is based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, with Erik Skoldbjaerg as concept director. The political thriller features Norway, invaded by Russians who want to control the country’s oil resources. Arte is co-producing.

TV2 has acquired the upcoming Danish TV drama 1864. Is this also part of TV2’s strategy to increase original quality Scandinavian dramas in its TV grid?
CH: We already had many series from our neighbours that rated very well and there are more to come. We learn a lot from Denmark and Sweden’s long TV drama experience and hope to do more co-productions with the rest of Scandinavia.